NEW ORLEANS, LA—DENNIS SORTO-ENAMORADO, age 30, an illegal alien from Honduras and most recently living in Metairie, Louisiana, was sentenced today by U.S.

District Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt to 121 months in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, after having been convicted of attempting to entice and coerce a minor to have sex with him (Count 1) and attempting to receive child pornography from that same minor (Count 2), announced United States Attorney Jim Letten. SORTO-ENAMORADO will also be required to register as a sex offender.

According to evidence introduced at trial, SORTO-ENAMORADO posted a lewd and sexually explicit classified advertisement on Craigslist.org seeking a casual sexual encounter. On August 2, 2010, as part of a proactive online undercover operation involving federal, state, and local authorities designed to target predators of children, an FBI agent serving in an undercover capacity as a 15-year-old girl, responded to the advertisement. Despite being informed on several occasions that the “girl” was only 15, SORTO-ENAMORADO detailed, in graphic and explicit terms, the nature of the sexual contact he wished to have with the girl. SORTO-ENAMORADO also instructed the “girl,” on multiple occasions, to send him sexually explicit pictures of her.

During the correspondence, SORTO-ENAMORADO also informed the “girl” that he wanted to meet her and have sex. He then drove from his home, in Metairie, Louisiana, to the Central Business District of New Orleans, where he believed the girl was staying. While he was driving to the CBD. SORTO-ENAMORADO continued to correspond with the “girl” by text message and cell phone. Upon his arrival at the hotel room where he believed the “girl” was staying alone, SORTO-ENAMORADO was apprehended by law enforcement agents. After being read his Mranda rights, SORTO-ENAMORADO confessed to e-mailing, calling, and texting the girl, believing that she was 15 years old and doing so for the sole purpose of having sex with her. A subsequent search revealed that SORTO-ENAMORADO was in possession of two condoms.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov .

This investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Louisiana Department of Justice as part of Project Safe Childhood. The prosecution of this case was handled by Assistant United States Attorney Jordan Ginsberg and Project Safe Childhood Coordinator Brian Klebba.